Chris Coyier - June Interview

This is an interview to Chris Coyier, the blogger that writes in CSS-Tricks. This interview belongs to a serie of interviews to bloggers related with the web design that I'm doing now. This serie of interviews is called 12 meses, 12 entrevistas, the most of them are in spanish. This has been translated too, if you want to see it in spanish click here, and if you want to comment it click here too

Berriart: How would you define your blog?Chris Coyier: My blog (CSS-Tricks.com) is about all things web design. There is obviously a focus on CSS and HTML, but I'll post about any tool that helps a designer get the job done. Lately there has been some PHP/MySQL, quite a bit of jQuery, Photoshop stuff. I also like to link to other things on the web of current interest to designers.

B: Why did you decide to start this blog?CC: It has been almost a year now. Back when I started this, I knew only a fraction of what I know know now about web design. Part of the reason I started it was to keep track of all these new techniques I was learning. I figured if I write up a short tutorial, I'll always have an archive I can look back through to remember how to do something. That is still true now! I am constantly referring back to old posts to see how I did something.

B: Do you have more personal blogs or other projects?CC: I'm always cooking up little ideas, but nothing worth talking about yet. Between the day job, freelance work, and CSS-Tricks, I'm busy enough =)

B: Has been your blog helpfull for your professional relationships?CC: It took a while, but yeah, I have gotten a few good freelance gigs out of the blog now. That is nice, but much more important is how far it has driven me to grow as a designer and the great community it has built.

B: There is an increasing number of bloggers now that only publish links or quotes other people. Instead, you use your blog to teach us new things, and we thank you. Is worth create new content?CC: Thanks! I think that's a great point. Sometimes I actually get a little jealous watching new blogs grow incredibly popular quickly that are solely link-blogs. Truth be told though, those blogs can be great resources. I find myself visiting those "huge roundup" posts fairly often to find interesting techniques. I do think there is more long-term value in creating original content though.

B: I read that you use Adobe tools. Are the free tools, like GIMP or Inkscape, very far from attaining the level of proprietary software?CC: I do use Adobe Creative Suite 3. That's what we used in college, that's what I used when I worked in print, and so that's what I use now. I think they are great tools. I can't speak to how tools like GIMP perform, but I get the impression that the are pretty much up-to-snuff for professional work. They gotta do something about that name though.

B: How much time do you devoted blogging?CC: I spend maybe a few hours a day dealing with the blog. Maybe a third of that time is writing new stuff. The other time is spent writing back to emails people send in, helping folks troubleshoot in the forum, tweaking design, and managing the advertising. Somedays 2-3 hours feels like a lot of time to spend on a blog, somedays it feels like it's not enough.

B: What social networking sites do you use? Or you don't?CC: I probably have accounts on every networking site I've ever seen, but I actually only keep up with a few of them. I am on Twitter and Facebook. Recently I've been on ScrnShots, which is a social site based on sharing inspiring screen shots. I really need a link-based social site... I just installed the new del.icio.us plugin and this latest version is actually really nice, so I'll probably get back into that soon.

B: Got a curious anecdote that you can tell us?CC: I saw a blimp once.

B: Finally, tell us please three blogs you're reading and that you'd recommend.CC:NETTUTS has been knocking them out of the park lately. Great stuff. TheDieline digs up some incredible packaging design. Seth Godin often inspires with marketing and user experience musings.

Thanks to Chris, I'm very grateful for the interview and for having spent part of his time in me, you can follow him at.CSS-Tricks. Remember that you can click here to comment this. Is an spanish page, but I'll answer in english too.